Maryland Report

Jody and I went to our 5th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on Saturday. It's so funny to me that Jody and I had only known each other a few months when we went to that first festival. We were SO overwhelmed by everything going on around us. After 5 Marylands and 2 Rhinebecks, we have this festival thing down to an art. We know where we're going, what we want to get, when to be laid back, and we have a great time. Reports from my very first MS&W here: 1 and 2. It cracks me up that we arrived at 11:30 am.

Jody and I left from Philly at about 6:45 am on Saturday which is about when we left last year. We got to the festival by about 8:40ish. We didn't sit in much traffic at all on our way into the fairgrounds but there was a long line up of cars behind us. I think we missed the traffic by less than a minute. We hit the ladies room where we encountered the shortest lines there of the day. Then we went to The Fold where I picked up two skeins of yarn for a Chevron scarf (Fire on the Mountain and Lemongrass) and a skein of the Knitters Without Borders colorway for the Arthritis Walk prizes. There was quite a line there but unlike last year, there wasn't a line to get into the booth to browse. I think at this point, people realize that you have to find a few things that you like and then get into the check out line if you ever plan to see the rest of the festival. I never mind waiting in that line because I much prefer to buy hand-dyed yarn in person.

After that we went to Tess' Yarns where I got a skein of sock yarn to make a pair of socks for Michelle and two skeins of merino laceweight to make a shawl for me.

My only other yarn purchase of the day was a ball of Noro sock yarn to make another pair of the Annetrelac socks because I love the first pair I made so much.

We somehow managed to miss the Ravelry meetup. We saw Jess, Casey, and Mary-Heather on our way back into the fairgrounds after dropping off our morning purchases to the car. We weren't able to get our stickers and they were long out of buttons but I was wearing mine from Rhinebeck and had brought an extra blank one that I received after ordering my t-shirt so Jody took that one. There was a woman with them (who I think was Jess' mom) who seemed shocked that I had not one, but two, buttons. Apparently there were A LOT of people who wanted buttons but didn't get them.

Jody and I spent some time knitting in the shady area in the vicinity of the Brooks Farm Booth. We ran into Kelly and her friend (whose name I, sadly, can not remember) and then Liz K and a bunch of her friends stopped by. Liz was wearing her Indigo Ruffle skirt and I am determined to make one this summer. It is ADORABLE!

Sidenote: I'm trying to identify all the people that I met on Saturday by using the Ravelry Friends lists of people who I have met before or whose names I do remember. It is surprisingly tough. Ravatars (that is Ravelry avatars) are not the clearest of identifying photos. It doesn't help that people have names like turtlegirl and mintyfresh. By the way, those are the Ravelry names of people I may or may not have met on Saturday. This is annoying me.

Shortly before we left the fairgrounds, we saw Lolly. It is always so good to see Lolly. She is the nicest, most genuine person in the world. She remembers everyone's name and seemingly reads everyone's blog. She was chatting with Isel, Stacey, and Jenna, as well as other folks I either can't remember or can't identify. Earlier in the day, we ran into Ann at the Brooks Farm Booth. We also saw Jessica very soon after arriving at the fairgrounds.

In any case, the weather was much better than expected, the sheep and alpacas were cute, and the people were friendly. I had a great day.

Edited to add pictures.

Comments

[lolly]

Five years! that is great :) and it is so nice that you and Jody can do that together!
It is always great to see you, Christy. You are too kind. There is definitely a limit to my memory capacity (I have already updated my post several times with links to people that I forgot that I saw/met). But I always remember you - you are an "old friend" from the early days of blogging! :) One of these days we will have a more-than-five-minute conversation...
So, are you gonna take pics of your lovely new yarns?

[ann]

It was so good to see you! it's funny, me sense of this year's MDSW (my fourth) was similar... I feel like I have the rhythm down and can just sort of enjoy the day and not get too frenzied. (good for the wallet too.) It really was just a fantastic day!

[Jessica]

Nice to see you again as well! Wish we could have chatted longer!

[tina]

Awesome! I almost felt as if i was there..... well without the stash enhancement of course! :)

I haven't been to MDSW in a bagazillion years and would dearly love to go back, yes I would.

I'll be watching to see what comes of the new yarn purchases!

[naomi]

For better pictures, so you can determine whether you met them, try looking at their blogs:
http://turtlegirl76.com/
http://pepperknit.com/blog

We were less outgoing at MD, but it was fun nonetheless.

[kelp!]

Man, you guys are festival professionals! It was great to meet you! You guys were sitting in the perfect spot to catch knitters on their way to Brooks Farm. You showed great restraint in resisting the Brooks Farm fumes...